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In 2004, a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health enabled East Tennessee State University to launch a series of pilot studies addressing various health disparities in Appalachia, and to work with community partners to improve health in the region.
Promising findings from those projects were revealed, and, in turn, have helped ETSU faculty garner some $1.7 million in additional funding from various agencies to support their continued work.
The initial $1.2 million grant became the foundation for the establishment of ETSU´s Appalachian Center for Translational Research in Disparities (ACTRID). A major goal of the center is to further study and improve the combined health disparity effects experienced by minorities living in Appalachia, where mortality rates related to diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, as well as incidences of low-birth weight, are among the state and nation´s highest.
Though housed within ETSU´s College of Nursing, the center has a multidisciplinary focus and has supported faculty members in medicine, nursing, public health, clinical and rehabilitative health sciences, and psychology.
"Many of our grant recipients are in the early stages of their research careers, and, for some, this was their first grant," said Dr. Joellen Edwards, director of ACTRID and lead author of the initial $1.2 million grant. "The focus of each project varied, but the key connection among them was the prevention and increased awareness of illnesses related to a disease that causes premature mortality."
According to Edwards, some of those investigators used their initial findings to capture larger grants to continue their research. Other faculty members are completing their projects and are in various stages of applying for new funding opportunities, which Edwards believes will be successful.
Dr. Beth Bailey, a faculty member in the Department of Family Medicine at ETSU´s James H. Quillen College of Medicine, was among the first to receive an ACTRID grant for her study of premature birth and low-birth weight as related to smoking behaviors of women while pregnant. She developed an intervention program that showed promising outcomes.
In 2007, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen announced that he was awarding $1.44 million to ETSU for Bailey to implement this program across six Northeast Tennessee counties, with long-term plans for taking it statewide. The program has already helped hundreds of pregnant women in Appalachia to stop smoking, leading to significant improvement in birth outcomes in the region. Bailey has also received additional grant dollars from the March of Dimes to assist with this project.
Because of the ACTRID pilot study, Dr. Karen Schetzina, a medical school faculty member and pediatrician with ETSU Physicians and Associates, received a grant from the Tennessee Department of Health to expand a new school-based wellness program to hundreds of elementary and middle school children across the Volunteer State. The program, Winning with Wellness, was developed by ETSU, Mountain States Health Alliance (MSHA), the Coordinated School Health Program, and other community projects.
Winning with Wellness was piloted at Boones Creek Elementary School, and results showed that kids who participated made healthier decisions in the cafeteria and also improved their level of physical activity, holding off elevating levels of obesity found in other non-participating schools. With the grant and additional funding from MSHA, ETSU is now implementing Winning with Wellness in five school systems, and organizers hope to involve more within the next year.
A parent-mediated child weight reduction program was also spearheaded by Dr. Tiejian Wu, an associate professor of public health and family medicine. Parents took an active role in the program, and Wu is using that data to apply for larger grants.
"While these projects brought forth exciting information, community members involved in these studies benefited tremendously as well," said Jill Bumpus, ACTRID coordinator. "Dr. Bailey was able to offer a smoking cessation program for pregnant women in the region, and, through Dr. Schetzina´s and Dr. Wu´s work, kids have adopted a healthier lifestyle."
Bumpus said Dr. Kathleen Rayman, ETSU associate professor of professional roles/mental health nursing, led a study of African American women and their experiences with diabetes education. She also piloted an intervention program for rural Appalachian women with type 2 diabetes.
Faculty members have presented findings from their ACTRID studies at regional, national, and international meetings, and Edwards has also provided data at several national conferences on the success of ACTRID.
Bumpus added that the grant has also supported several mentoring and training sessions on research procedures for faculty, staff, and students, as well as a number of community initiatives, including a large health fair for the African American community.
Further, ACTRID is helping to facilitate several coalitions in the region looking at various health disparities.
The $1.2 million initiative is being funded through NIH´s National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities (grant number 1 R24 MD001106-04).
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